Chapter Eight: Buster Sword's Revenge

Xemnas turned his eyes on Sephiroth. "Sephiroth, do you have the ability to manipulate others?"

Sephiroth grinned, his Mako green eyes flashing as he nodded, "Yes I do-what fun it is! What this!"

Xemnas looked at Sephiroth heard him muttered something in a language he didn't understand ,staring deeply into Larexen's eyes. Sephiroth raised one of his gloved hands, "Now Larexen. Tell us-how much do you love Axel?"

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Cloud watched Riku go, wondering what was wrong with Riku. Usually he would listen to them, but now he just kept on walking. Cloud had noticed that the black cloth that they had all thought he had put over his eyes, was actually tied around his forehead. He narrowed his eyes at Riku's fading figure. "Come on, Cloud, we have to go catch up with Riku." Kairi said, dragging him along.

Cloud nodded and began to run after the nineteen year-old. He was swifter than everyone else and easily past them. It didn't take long to catch up with Riku. Cloud slowed and was now walking beside Riku. "What's up? Why didn't you listen to us?" Cloud asked, his tone stern.

Riku looked up at him with blank eyes. Cloud stared at Riku's eyes for a moment, noticing the shadow in them that quickly vanished. "Because you guys were breaking my concentration-and you just broke it again."

"Concentration? For what?" Cloud asked.

"To fight off my darkness." Riku replied simply.

"Your darkness? Heh, least yours is inside you and doesn't try to slit your throat open every time you see it." Cloud growled, glancing back at Aurithia, Sora, and Kairi, who had slowed and was letting Cloud speak with Riku.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked, confusion plain in his eyes.

"You mean no one has told you?" Cloud asked staring at Riku. He had thought that Sora or Kairi had told Riku. 'Guess not-I have been gone for a long time-arguing with Scalvatrx-I mean Arkath-and fighting Sephiroth.'

Riku shook his head, "No, who is your darkness?"

Cloud sighed and replied sarcastically, "As he calls himself 'the Almighty God Sephiroth'. Heh-he's just another damned experiment-though he doesn't know it. And then he hangs over me all the time trying to get rid of the light inside of me. I pity him really," Cloud admitted, looking at Riku.

"Pity your darkness? I don't pity mine-I despise mine. He's always trying to manipulate me." Riku responded bluntly. Cloud blinked, and to Riku and his own surprise, began laughing. "Why are you laughing?" Riku asked.

"Ha, ha because…Ansem and Sephiroth ha-ha could be the best of friends! Ha-ha-ha! Both love to ha-ha manipulate others and bend their minds, ha-ha!"

"SPIKY ASSED FOO'! We can all hear you ya know!"

Cloud nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the voice. He looked in his pocket and saw his PHS. It was open and Barret was shouting into his on the other end. "Ah shit!" Cloud grumbled.

"Yeah 'Ah shit!' is right! You don't need to joke about that!" Tifa yelled.

"Tifa!" Cloud growled, taking out his PHS and noticing that there was a cord leading up to his ear. He had forgotten that he had stuck it in his ear so that he could hear and talk to them back and forth telling them everything. "I wasn't joking! It's true!"

"Yeah well, Sephiroth and Ansem are different!"

"How?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah how?" Riku demanded.

They heard Tifa sigh, "Because you idiot, Sephiroth wants to become a god so he-er uh-Aerith, don't take this as an insult-killed Aerith, trying to destroy the Planet, killed our parents, stabbed you three times, destroyed Midgar, destroyed Nimbelheim, and-"

"Okay, okay Tifa! I get it!"

"And then you fell into the Lifestream, went crazy, thought of yourself as someone that wasn't Cloud, placed yourself as Zack, gave Sephiroth the Black Materia, then beat the hell out of Aerith-"

"Don't remind me."

"Tried to kill her. Then you came and got yourself drunk, brought home Denzel cause you found him in Aerith's church, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo came around, Kadaj tried to kill Rufus, Rufus have JENOVA's head, Kadaj took it, became Sephiroth. Sephiroth tried to take away everything you care about, but you killed him again with you buster sword and then you had to battle Deep Ground and then you moved to Radiant Garden and then you found him there and he became your darkness."

"Yeah-go and spill everything about me to Riku! Nice going Tifa!"

"Opps, sorry, Cloud!"

"Easy for you to say…"

"Y-You beat up Aerith?" Riku gasped, staring at Cloud. "But I thought you l-" Suddenly cloud put his hand around Riku's mouth, cutting off the teen's sentence. Cloud then shut the PHS and looked at Riku, "Sorry,"

Cloud nodded, "It's fine-I guess. But now you have to go back tot he others-got that?" Riku blinked and then shook his head. "Why not?"

"Because I might hurt them."

"Is this because you summoned that black Keyblade? That doesn't matter-come on let's go back," Cloud said, his voice full of determination as he began to drag Riku. Riku struggled against the ex-SOLDIER's death grip, but Cloud only shot him a glare and responded, "Don't even try to fight me, Riku. I'm an ex-SOLDIER-well I never did make it to SOLDIER…sort of, but I was trained by Sephiroth himself."

Riku's struggles faltered, "You were trained by…Sephiroth?"

'Yeah, he's the ex-General of-what the-"

Cloud had spotted someone in a beach chair, leaned back, obviously sleeping. His eyes widened and a smile played on his lips. He began laughing so hard as he let go of Riku and walked over to the sleeping man. He motioned for Riku to keep silent as he stopped laughing and motioned for the others to stop coming forward. Carefully, and silently, Cloud slunk over to the sleeping figure and took out his PHS. There was a built in camera on it and he took a picture of the sleeping man and sent it to Tifa.

The man was wearing a shirt decorated in Moogles that was red and had on a pair of khaki shorts. His light brown hair was slicked back, looking very neat. Two locks of hair rain in front of his face, making him look very much like Demyx at the moment. Cloud got behind the man and grabbed the sun screen bottle next to the lounge chair. He opened it and squirted it o the man's face, making it look as if he had a white mustache and white eye brows. Then Cloud squirted it all over his eyes making him look as if someone had sprayed cool whip all over is face.

Cloud took another picture and sent it to Tifa. Meanwhile Riku could tell Cloud was trying his best not to die laughing. Aurithia, Sora, and Kairi were laughing silently at what Cloud was doing, though they did not know who the man was. Riku himself was shaking with silent laughter. (let's just hope the guy doesn't have his gun on him! Course he's blinded by the sunscreen!-I'm a fan of the unknown man at the moment for those who have not played FFVII. You'll find out who he is soon enough.)

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"I love Axel enough to ask him to go to-"

"Don't even finish that, Larexen!" Sephiroth snapped, breaking her trance. All at once and image flashed in his mind of a certain someone asleep in lounge chair on the beach with sun screen all over his face. Sephiroth's grin widened. "Excuse me for a moment," he told Xemnas, vanishing by teleporting his way to Destiny Island. (uh-oh)

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Cloud sensed it before it happened. The around them turned black, and through all of the darkness, a light sprung forth, etching an image in the sky. There was a way of light that blasted down towards the ground and before his eyes Sephiroth materialized from the light and stepped out, his one-wing flapping in the still air. Surprisingly, the sleeping man had not yet awakened. "Sephiroth!" Cloud breathed quietly, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Sephiroth merely glanced at him before rushing over to where Cloud stood and stared at the man. Cloud didn't do anything as Sephiroth peered at his could-have-been boss. Cloud noticed the smile on Sephiroth's face. "Cloud! How you managed to stumble across this ba-----, I don't know, but hell, this is way too funny!"

All at once Sephiroth raised his hand and curled his fingers into a fist. He brought them down on the man's sleeping face. "Time to get up Rufus!" There was a harsh cracking sound as the man awoke, screaming in pain as he clutched his bleeding nose, but his cry was carried by the wind and faded as he grimaced, meeting the cold, insane eyes of Sephiroth.

"Dammit Sephiroth! Why the hell did you break my nose?" Rufus raised his hand and wiped away the sunscreen that was supposed to have gotten in his eyes, but had somehow not and he could see. He wiped his face some more finding even more sunscreen. He blinked, rubbing all of it off and then looked from Cloud to Sephiroth, "Why are you two laughing? I thought you were both enemies!"

"Old friends can have a laugh when they broke their old boss's nose and put sunscreen all over their face-right?" Cloud laughed, clutching his sides.

Rufus narrowed his eyes, barley feeling the pain as he wiped away the fresh blood that came from his nose. Sephiroth, however glared at Cloud, "We aren't old friends Cloud!"

"We were until you went insane!" Cloud snapped back, but continued to laugh. Riku and the others were dumbfounded.

Rufus continued to snarl at them as he leapt to his feet and dug a small green orb out of his pocket. "Good thing I brought this! Cure 2!" A green wave of light surrounded him his nose mended. "Grr! I'm going to kill you Strife and…and…whatever your last name is! Um…Hojo Jr.!" (harsh!)

Sephiroth stopped laughing and looked at Rufus with horror,. "What?! I am not a Hojo Jr. ! For that remark I'm gonna have to kill Strife now!"

Cloud, who was laughing" Yeah! Oh hey! WHAT?! Damned angel!"

Sephiroth only laughed as he drew the Masamune. Cloud glanced towards Riku, who watched with silence, not moving, not frowning, not smiling, not laughing, he was emotionless and appeared dead.

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Tifa stared at the picture of Rufus as it appeared on her PHS. "What the hell? Is that Rufus?" she gasped, choking with laughter. Everyone came forward, including Aerith who had been careful to stay away from everyone. The members of AVALANCHE: Vincent, Barret, Red-and you could consider Marlene as one, but she really wasn't-glanced at her. Clearly they had not expected to see her there because to them, she was dead. It had been quite a surprise for the rest for members of AVALANCHE: Tifa, Cloud, and Cid to take it in at first. AVALANCHE was a terrorist group that destroyed Mako towers for the good of the Planet, but we won't get into all of that.

"Wait a second-where are they at?" Barret asked, looking at the sand all around Rufus who was asleep.

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Riku hadn't expected Sephiroth to look so much like him-Ansem. He blinked, noticing that Sephiroth seemed a little older than Ansem. So did that mean Ansem stole Sephiroth's look? Maybe…wait a second! Why was he concerned about what Ansem and Sephiroth looked like? He wasn't so he just watched in silence as Cloud drew the buster sword out, handling it with one hand. Riku was surprised that Cloud could wield such a giant sword, but of course, when he reflected on Sephiroth, it would have been really hard to handle a twelve foot sword and not carry it around- stabbing and chopping things, but Sephiroth was an expert at it.

"Hey! Don't fight while I'm standing right between you two!" Rufus suddenly shouted, jumping to his feet and rushing into the water until he figured he was a safe distance away from Sephiroth and Cloud. Riku watched as Rufus rushed-avoiding getting anywhere near Cloud and Sephiroth-over towards him. "Hey kid! I suggest you move before one of them cuts your head off!" Rufus warned sharply as he went over to a palm tree and sat under it. Riku rolled his eyes.

"Heh-Rufus! I wouldn't hurt Riku-they need him now, but you-you could end up like your father if you keep interfering like that!" Sephiroth snapped, swinging his blade at Cloud swiftly. It could barley be seen at the speed Sephiroth had swung it, but Cloud somehow jumped up, doing a flip-defying gravity-and landed about five feet away from Sephiroth, his buster sword pressing into the sand.

Cloud raised it and glared at Sephiroth. Riku watched as Cloud unhooked a second sword from the buster sword so that he now wielded two blades. Sora, Kairi, and Aurithia had come up beside Riku now and were watching in silence. Every so often, Riku would glance at Aurithia and see her stony blue eyes glance at him for a split of a second every time he looked at her. Riku bit back a smile as he watched Cloud dodge yet another blow from the deadly Masamune. "Give it up, Strife!" Sephiroth snapped. "Give in to your darkness!"

"Not on your life, Sephiroth! You've tried to destroy my life before-well you'll never accomplish that without destroying everything! And the last time I checked, ruling the world was on your agenda!" Cloud snapped back, hooking the second blade back in place. He began to glow a red shade as he got ready to use his limit break.

Sephiroth smirked, not giving Cloud time to use Omnislash as he leapt up into the air, using his wing to levitate, he sheathed the Masamune and held his hands out to his side. A dark glow surrounded him and Cloud. Dark orbs floated around the two, and all at once, they heard Sephiroth growl, "Heartless Angel!"

Before anyone could react, Cloud dropped the ground, his strength gone. He groaned as the energy left him, but his strength doubled, causing him to raise his buster sword and swing it outwards, "Omnislash!" The deadly attack hit Sephiroth, causing a great deal of damage several times over. Cloud quickly healed himself, and noticed Sephiroth did the same. He clenched his fist together as Sephiroth sheathed the Masamune and stood there, his black wing fluttering.

"What are you doing? Giving up already?" Cloud asked, his voice showing the weariness he felt within, but his eyes held the strength to fight Sephiroth. "You fled last time-going to do it again?"

Sephiroth merely narrowed his eyes, "I have failed once more, but Cloud, the darkness within you will grow and the light will die. When it does, I'll be there, mocking you in your time of doom." With that, Sephiroth vanished as quickly as he had come.

"Damn him!" Cloud muttered angrily, his eyes flashing as he sheathed the buster sword.

"Cloud, how come Sephiroth left?" Kairi asked, her eyes wide. Cloud turned to look at her, but he did not answer. Instead he remained silent and kept his eyes on Aurithia. It was clear he was ready to continue.

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Xemnas kept his eyes one Zexion and Larexen and Xaldin. "You guys go-you're job is calling," he growled.

Zexion nodded, vanishing with Larexen, followed by Xaldin. Just as they left, Sephiroth reappeared, a stern look on his face. He did not speak to Xemnas about where he had been, instead he asked, "Where am I to stay?"

Xemnas rolled his eyes, "In Demyx's old room. You can fashion it in anyway you like as long as it has no sexually disturbing content-you know what I mean-no corpses, blood, or anything in the such. Otherwise you're free to decorate it anyway you want-no insults to anyone though."

Sephiroth nodded and left Xemnas's office, muttering something about he would never put something sexually disturbing up in his room.

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Ansem-Xehanort-glared as he sat down in his chair. He was back in the very room where he had kept the Seven Princesses of Heart, waiting for Riku to return. His eyes were closed as he spoke with Riku mentally, but every time he tried to speak, his messages were interrupted by a wave of darkness. The time was coming very soon. Ansem grinned, remembering the horror he had made his little puppet feel when he had put the Destructor in his hand.

In truth, the origins of the Destructor were known by him only. Sora's heart had not created it; no, it had belonged to someone that no one would ever suspect. His eyes opened, glinting with an evil sheen as he remembered his long-time enemy.

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Mickey looked over at his friend, Ansem the Wise. Ansem the Wise was asleep at the moment, still recovering from the nearly-fatal wound that Xehanort-Fake Ansem-had inflicted upon his body. Stitch meanwhile was scurrying around the room, getting into everything.

Mickey ignored the little blue creature as he turned to a hooded figure leaning against a wall, looking at him. "Are you sure you're up to this?" he asked, looking at the hooded figure with uncertainty.

The hooded figure, "Yeah, Mickey. I'm up to it alright," To Mickey, the voice sounded so familiar, but he could not place it. Something in his heart told him to trust this person, though he did not know who it was.

"Okay then, they are waiting at Destiny Island." Mickey said, glancing over at Ansem the Wise. "You do not need to worry about DiZ here, he'll be fine," Only Mickey and Xehanort-Fake Ansem-knew that this person was actually Ansem the Wise, not DiZ.

The hooded figure nodded and extended their hand. There was a swirling dark energy in their palm, like a lightning strike and a long, thin blade appeared. It had a a dark aura around it and seemed to bring off a deadly intent to the wielder. Mickey sighed, knowing it was going to be hard. He had already known the hooded figure was someone of the shadows, but they were going to help him, and that was what he needed.

The hooded teen did a small bow before turning around and placing her hand on the cold metal wall. A portal of darkness rose from the ground and she stepped into it.

"Remember! Always keep in the light-but stay with the tamed darkness!" Mickey shouted as the portal began to close.